Nostalgia & History > The Grand Tour of Winston Salem Union Station 1972

Winston Salem Union Station (WSUS) was owned and operated by the Southern Railway. Through tracks ran east/west through the station. There were two platforms with canopy covers; at some point, part of the canopy covers had been removed. The last regularly scheduled Southern Railway passenger train operated through WSUS in late July/ early August 1970.
A little over two years later on Sep 17, 1972, Southern operated a Winston Salem / Charlotte round trip excursion with 4501. While he was in town for the excursion, Bill Purdy toured WSUS and selected some furniture remaining there for his office in Birmingham.
Around mid Nov 1972, a Southern boxcar and the Winston Salem Chapter NRHS baggage car were spotted at WSUS. On Saturday, Nov 18, 1972, members of Winston Salem Chapter NRHS gathered at WSUS to load the furniture destined for Bill Purdy into the boxcar. The Chapter was allowed to load a couple of items for itself into its baggage car. On this occasion, I took the posted photos with my Instamatic X35 with KodacolorX film.
ALLEN
Photo 1 - Streetside view of Main Entrance facing southeast
Photo 2 - Express and Mail Truck entrance and station platform facing southwest
Photo 3 - Front view of Main Entrance facing south



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/22 00:44 by krm152.

Photo 4 - View from Main Entrance facing north
Photo 5 - Near platform facing west
Photo 6 - Both platforms facing west

Photo 7 - SOU interchange run to N&W facing east
Photo 8 - SOU interchange run to N&W facing west
Photo 9 - Near platform facing east

Photo 10 - Chapter baggage car and SOU boxcar
Photo 11 - Near platform facing west
Photo 12 - Near platform facing west



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/22 00:43 by krm152.

Photo 13 - Near platform facing east
Photo 14 - Near platform facing east
Photo 15 - SOU interchange run from N&W facing west

Photo 16 - Far platform facing east
Photo 17 - View from Station Concourse facing west
Photo 18 - Far platform facing west wi N&W GP

Photo 19 - Near platform facing west wi N&W GP
Photo 20 - WSUS complex facing east

Thanks for posting.

Thanks for posting these fascinating photos. I've driven by WSUS many times and wondered what it might have looked like when it was active. Although passenger service had ceased at the time of these photos, appears the facilities were still intact. The platforms and the overhead concourse are long gone, and only a single track remains. The main building is currently being restored by the city and will become a bus terminal and offices. If rail passenger service is ever restored, it would be available for that purpose.

I'm not familiar with this station so thanks for the detailed shots of the station and platform.
Is it still there?
Gary

Nice...So where does Amtrak stop in Winston/Salem?

Checked it out on Google Maps: 300 S Martin Luther King Jr Dr, Winston-Salem, NC 27101
You can get a good street view; and a nice 3-D view. It is close to Winston-Salem State
University; but far away from the city center. Would it be worthy for the State of NC to
route one train from Greensboro to Winston-Salem and down to Charlotte?

Thanks for the photo documentation! What a neat archway supporting the concourse.
Curved and covered platforms. The Southern had that at several locations.
Just think of all the people that station served. Those stairs had to be a challenge!

Amtrak has never served W-S by train. There is connecting bus service from downtown W-S (not the former Southern station) to the NC trains. See http://www.partnc.org/route5/.

Some of the NCDOT and SEHSR studies have looked at how to serve W-S. On the one hand it's politically smart and would add 250,000 people to the route. On the other hand it would delay the Charlotte-Raleigh services substantially. Last variant I saw would use ex-Southern between Greensboro and W-S and ex-WSSB between W-S and Lexington where the train would rejoin the Charlotte-Greensboro main. Problem is, existing tracks aren't situated in either W-S or Lexington to make such a connection easy. I have heard zero mention of restoring the direct ex-Southern between W-S and Charlotte. A trestle remains out of service in W-S and the route southward from W-S has a zillion grade crossings.

bluesboyst Wrote:
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> Nice...So where does Amtrak stop in Winston/Salem?


Amtrak does not currently serve Winston-Salem. The closest stations would be at Greensboro or High Point on the Southern Crescent route. Winston-Salem was on a secondary Southern main line which was used by the Carolina Special and the Asheville Special that operated between Greensboro and Asheville. My old Official Guides show that Southern Railway also offered bus service between Winston-Salem and Greensboro to connect to the trains on the Washington-Atlanta main line.

The N&W once provided passenger service to Winston-Salem on its line from Roanoke, not sure when that ended. My 1954 Official Guide does not show any N&W trains to Winston-Salem, only a highway connection from Roanoke.

amazing it is still there! thanks for the link

A note of history: in 1916 the N&W and WSSB proposed building a new station in downtown W-S. Never built, it was described as a "huge multi level affair". The more modest station standing today opened 10 years later, on a different site. Passenger service on the WSSB ended in 1933. Not sure about the last train on the N&W to W-S.

The N&W ended service to Winston Salem in March 1961 according to info contain in the book N&W Passenger Service 1946-1971 by William E. Warden.
ALLEN

krm152 Wrote:
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> The N&W ended service to Winston Salem in March
> 1961 according to info contain in the book N&W
> Passenger Service 1946-1971 by William E. Warden.
> ALLEN

Thanks both for the wonderful photos and the N&W reference. I believe that N&W had vacated Union Station a few years earlier in order to cut its passenger costs, and was serving Winston-Salem out of its North Winston Yard, across the highway from Smith Reynolds Airport.

> I believe that N&W had vacated Union Station a few years
> earlier in order to cut its passenger costs...

Sounds right. N&W was into cutbacks by then. On the similar line into Durham, N&W had replaced its passenger trains with mixed trains in 1954. Those lasted only three years, and I suspect the mixed trains left from the N&W freight yard not Durham Union Station.